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Lethbridge Herald, The (Newspaper) - May 21, 1974, Lethbridge, Alberta
4-THE LETHBRIDGE HERALD Miy 1074 Canadian labor favors national unionism The anticipation factor There seems 10 be agreement among domestic and foreign observers that inflation is the main issue in the upcoming feaeral election Equally evident is the fact that the three viable national parties will be offering voters a surfeit of analyses and remedies in the weeks between now and July 8 considering the world- wide importance of the this campaign is likely to be like all campaigns and the verbiage which accompanies it will stem from political realities rather than economic ones When Messrs Stanfield and Lewis offer Canadians their differing views on the root causes of inflation and their differing ideas of what to do about it the voter can never be sure whether they are attempting to educate him or to elicit his vote In other are they telling him what he wants to hear or are they telling the truth as they see it the world of economics its is axiomatic that there is no only a collection of variables That this is the case can already be seen here in Alberta in Premier Peter Lougheed's departure from his former opposition to wage and price controls He is now hedging his position and moving closer to Mr Stanfield's oft-stated demand for a 90-day freeze on wages and prices At the same without absolutely vacating his former well- documented the national Tory leader is now saying that this is a maximum time limit In in the interest ot winning the election for their party they are coming up with a new economic truth As if the present uncertainties about inflation and political interpretations of the interwoven and overlapping problems are not the Wall Street Journal has introduced a new point of view which challenges conventional wisdqm about money supply and interest rates The rule of thumb has been that the way to bring down interest rates is to increase the money supply at a faster rate In an era dominated by inflation just the opposite is happening because of what is called the anticipation factor says the perceive a faster rate of money growth and assume that the inflation rate also will rise They thus increase their borrowing in advance of an increase in costs of future needs The resulting increase in money demand keeps upward pressure on interest rates And in the second according to the Journal when money supply dealers in the short-term money market anticipate that the Federal Reserve Board the Bank of Canada and this becomes analagous to the domestic will tighten up by raising its target interest rate on federal funds and they begin unloading their inventories which presses short-term interest rates even higher If all this seems a little obscure to the layman he can translate it into and consequently terms by asking himself how much he himself has purchased in the past year in anticipation of future just because prices are rising and it will cost more tomorrow Every time this happens it is an upward inflationary pressure and the spiral continues In the campaign oratory which has already begun to flow and in the conflicting views which are being offered to voters on solutions to Canada s economic the best a voter can do is to analyse everything in the light oi his personal situation And it can also be anticipated that in the end the election will not solve the problem of inflation It will simply point out which party seems to understand it best ART BUCHWALD Alice in Washington WASHINGTON Alice was walking down Pennsylvania Avenue when the March Hare asked her would you like to go to a White House press briefing9 What's a White House prfss briefing' Alice asked That is where they deny what they have already told which is the only reason it could be the March Hare said It sounds like Alice said The March Hare brought Alice into the press room A chess pawn was standing at a podium Who is Alice asked is the press secretary He talks in riddles Listen Why are transcripts better than the press secretary asked I don't know the answer to that Alice said to the March Hare are transcripts better than tapes'1 she shouted to everyone's surprise The press secretary looked at her with cold blue eyes refuse to comment on that Alice looked confused Why did he ask us a riddle if he can't give an answer to it9 The March Hare said don't tell him the they just give him the riddles a stupid Alice said is everyone writing in their notebooks9' 'They write down everything he says even though they don't believe him Why don t they believe Alice asked Because he makes things up He has to or there would be no reason to have a briefing The press secretary spoke again the evidence is in and it proves beyond a reasonable doubt that the king is innocent of all crimes et cetera But what about the evidence the king refuses to turn over to the committee9' a dormouse asked That is not the press secretary replied If there- was further evidence to prove the king he would have gladly given it to the committee The fact that he hasn't turned it over means regretfully there is none It's as simple as that It doesn't sound very simple to Alice said Why can't we hear all the the Mock Turtle we can decide for ourselves who is innocent and who is The press secretary you heard the tapes it would only prove the innocent are guilty and the guilty are innocent and it would serve no purpose but to confuse you Besides what you would hear is not what you have read and what you have read is not what you would so it's better not to hear what cannot be read Isn't that perfectly clear'' 'I feel I'm back at the Mad Hatter's tea party Alice said Now I will give you some important news the press secretary said is on the record 'Twas bnllig and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe All mimsy were the and the mome raths out grabe Everyone wrote it down What did he Alice asked the March Hare replied just stalling until he can go to lunch By Richard Toronto Star commentator slen- not charismatic in the conventional sense but rather possessed of a special quality or Cesar the leader of the Mexican- American farm workers of California stood on the platform before the Canadian Labour Congress convention La he shouted the delegates roared back La Causa And like a battle-cry from the The moment was poignant It had taken an to provide the convention with the emotional outlet it had been looking for As he described his union's fight against the corporate farmers and Teamsters and the boycott of grapes and Chavez gave the CLC delegates an issue in which right and wrong were unmistakable In return the delegates gave Chavez three standing ovations and a floor donation of None of the other issues the CLC struggled with during its week-long convention were as and black or white Even more these issues set unions and delegates against each other The CLC will never be the same after this convention The old-generation of international union often men of iron like retiring president Donald are no longer in control The rising through the have learned their power but have not yet de- cided how to use it For the first time in CLC history a key proposal by the executive the convention to reject a demand by the Quebec Federation of Labour for special voted down by the delegates. For the first time members of the executive slate of candidates were de- two of the top four CLC posts The two events embarassed the CLC Yet they demonstrated the vitality of labour's rough-and-ready democracy A more important change for the longterm was marked by the discovery of now Butch to create a will cross their picket line Portugal learns hard lesson in freedom By Carl syndicated commentator WASHINGTON The people of Portugal seem finally to have learned the painful way what Great Britain learned in France learned in Algeria and the United States learned in Indochina that there arc stark limitations on the uses of military power in combatting a mass human demand for self- determination Each of these nations found it could not control the destinies of other people without pavmg a terrible price of political chaos and economic dislocation at home In the case of 13 years of military struggle to maintain a colonial grip on African territories became just another excuse for Portugal's dictatorship to LETTERS further brutalize the citizens of the European The Portuguese found that enslavers almost always wind up enslaved Recently a military junta overthrew Portugal's which was thought to be one of the most securely entrenched in the world Political prisoners have been released and the junta has promised free elections and other forms of democratic life It is a mark of the wisdom of the new military rulers that they sense that no citizen of Lisbon can be really free as long as Portugal pursues policies of colonial repression in Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea They know that the level of life of the people of Portugal can scarcely be raised if vital resources are squandered in waging war against guerrillas fighting for the independence of those African territories The junta has severe problems with whites in these colonies just as Charles de Gaulle had grim problems with French settlers in Algeria Some Frenchmen argued passionately that Algeria was just an of just as whites in Angola call that wealthy territory and insist that it is just of Portugal That is why it was a mark of both courage and wisdom for the junta to send General Francisco da Costa Gomes into Angola to fire top military commanders and to dismiss other authorities who were reluctant to open the Alberta rights bill done much AMAWC nallintf f We Albertans must surely congratulate ourselves as we were the first to elect Premier Lougheed' He is more knowledgable than any of the leaders of other countries who have wronged the poor Hutterites all these many hundreds of years His cabinet members are also very intelligent when an opposition member warns of possible future problems they it is that MLA who is really causing the trouble' The small community businessmen who object are just plain lazy1 Furnfture store owners should be out there selling Hutterites etc even if they do make all their own furniture Men's ladies' wear and shoe shops should be able to sell their products never mind that the Hutterites make all their own clothes and etc Beauty salons and barber shops have no initiative at all if they can't talk the Huttentes into getting their hair done or cut I will never understand grocers who have to pay etc being upset because the Hutterites sell fresh and etc to people of the community Just because the grocer has expenses and so is forced to sell at higher prices to make a livmo it rprtemlv isn't the Hutterites' fault Everyone knows the farmers are not quite as bright mentally as the city dweller and are just plain jealous because they have to pay personal income wages if they need extra help and can't buy wholesale through quantity They won't live the austere life as the Hutterites so it is no one's fault but their when they haven't the capital to help their sons get started Why can't these people follow the example of the city businessman You and I know that if one business didn't have to pay personal income unemployment and Canada Pension etc and could buy cheaper than the these other businesses would be extremely happy for that fortunate business so that he would have extra capital with which to buy other businesses If there was one who did fuss about we would realize immediately that it was just plain bigotry because maybe the other fellow lived and dressed and prayed a little and was also extremely jealous of the additional capital with which to work We should consider ourselves extremely fortunate that we have to pay oersonal income tax. unemployment Canada etc and surely must pity the poor unfortunate Hutterites who don't pay such things Community schools are a thing of the and if children from grades 1 to 12 have to be bussed from 50 to 100 miles a what possible reason can parents have for complaining' Six year old children should be able to get up at five or six in the morning to catch a bus a little earlier than if their schools are closed We all know parents in the cities don't mind their children being bussed to different schools' There is such a teacher shortage anyway' I really don't know how we ever survived without a Bill of Rights in Alberta before It has done so much for all of us Of The Lethbndge Herald is above reproach and when our dear Premier is the new world it should certainly get the job of government press as it is doing a fabulous job right now The Herald knows there are never two sides to a story and that these people who are causing trouble for the Hutterites are just plain bigots HELEN FULTON Vulcan door to democracy in the territories the way the junta is trying to open it in Portugal Costa Gomes has asked for a ceasefire in the African territories He has offered amnesty to imprisoned members of rebel forces He and other members of the junta now talk of a Portuguese federation in which the African territories would be completely autonomous Portuguese states But the junta is not so naive as to rule out the possibility that some or all of the African territories will insist on total independence There might have been a time 20 years ago that is when Africans in Angola and Mozambique would have accepted autonomy with strong legal ties to Portugal But there is hardly any chance of guerrilla leaders accepting that now Portugal has remained brutally obdurate in clinging to colonialism long after virtually all of Europe bowed to the reality that self determination was an idea whose time had come The bloodiness and bitterness of 13 years of warfare probably cannot be patched over with a of equal states Junta leaders will try to retard in deference to white stand but already they seem to indicate a secret knowledge that independence is inevitable for these African territories About the most the new rulers can hope for is that they can erase enough of the bad taste to make possible good economic and political relations with Portugal's ex colonies and the rest of independent Africa It is a sad commentary that it took a military junta to jar Portugal into the reality of the late 20th century but wisdom like wealth is where vou find it the and of union rank- and-file to public opinion out- side the movement The decisive issue was Canadian nationalism In his keynote speech MacDonald slammed out against pampered darlings of the the nationalist and chauvanist groups His anger was easy to understand American labour created the union movement in Canada While the evidence is many Canadian unions still benefit from their ties with international unions As Dennis McDermott of the auto-workers put it counts is service to members You don't turn a bum union into a good union just by sticking a maple leaf flag on McDermott was right No- one in fact argued that a change of nationality meant automatically a change for the better The argument instead was that for their own had no choice is a growing national consciousness which must be said Lome Robertson of the carpenters Leaders of the international electricians argued in defence of their cross-border but the electricians Vancouver local No picketed the convention demanding independence Dave Werlin of the militant Canadian Union of Public Employees drew a standing ovation when he said rank and file have had enough of studies They want action The turning-point in the na- tionalist movement came with the decision by the 35 000- member United ratified in a vote last to break from their international union They were the first major union to do so Since as John secretary of the British Columbia Government Employees Union put it trend toward national unionism has become irresistible The CLC proposed at the convention to extend its list of Canadian autonomy first developed in 1970 and ignored in whole or part by most international unions to include requirements such as separate Canadian representation on in ternational organizations The CLC this time proposed also a svstem of relatively mild sanctions against unions which fai'ed to comply Delegates attacked the re- solution as both going too far and not far enough Delegates criticised the proposal for CLC-imposed sanctions Any issue affecting the sheet metal workers will be decided by the sheet metal workers said Ron Taylor from that international union Tom McGrath of the railway and transport workers attacked from the other side am not prepared to wait another 10 or 15 years for my fellow- workers to gain control of their own he said The opposites cancelled each other out As influential was the appeal to labour solidarity enemies are after said Louis president of the Quebec Federation of Labour must not set worker against worker Let us pass this resolution whose own goal ironically is autonomy within the won the day Nationalism versus inter- nationalism is an issue that organized labour dislikes in- tensely because its content is political rather than economic Yet MacDonald without intending provided part of the answer After Chavez' MacDonald said proudly want to point out that the CLC supported the boycott of grapes and lettuce before the AFL-CIO did Canadian labour once de- pended upon its American brothers Today it has grown up At Vancouver the CLC took a small but important step toward recognizing its own maturity The rest is inevitable The Lethbridge Herald 504 7th St S Lethbrldge Alberta LETHBRIDGE HERALD CO LTD Proprietors and Second Class Mall Registration No 0012 CLEO MOWERS. Editor and Publisher DON H FILLING Managing Editor DONALD R DORAM General Manager ROY F MILES Advertising Manager DOUGLAS K WALKER Editorial Page Editor ROBERT M FENTON Circulation Manager KENNETH E OARNETT Business Manager HERALD SERVES THE
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